We encountered some technical difficulties this morning that rendered us unable to post our usual summary of the Caps (Cheerless was whittling a new keyboard for himself, lost his grip on the knife, and whipped the knife right into the circuit breaker box, cutting off all the power). By now you have probably digested last night's thrilling trick shot win over the Canadiens, but maybe you'd like some tidbits to snack on this afternoon...

-- Alex Ovechkin’s two goals gave him 52 for the season,
breaking the franchise mark of 472 held by Peter Bondra. The 52 goals ties him fifth place in
franchise history for most goals in a season (a place he occupies with Bondra,
who did it twice, and himself, achieved in his rookie season of 2005-2006).

-- Ovechkin’s two power play goals broke a tie with Ray
Bourque for 28th place all time in that category. He is now tied with Jarome Iginla in 27th
place with 175 career power play goals.

-- A hat trick of Ovechkin facts. The two goals made it his 100the career
multi-goal game. Since he came into the
league in 2005-2006, no one has more. No
one is within 30 games of him (Jarome Iginla: 66). Fifteen of those multi-goal games have come
this season, almost twice as many as his closes pursuers (Joe Pavelski, Tyler
Seguin: 8)

-- John Carlson had three assists, giving him 40 on the
season. It is the 22nd time in franchise history that a defenseman reached the 40-assist mark, and he is
the 11th defenseman to do it for the Caps.

It was the first time Carlson recorded three assists in a
game since posting three helpers on December 5, 2011 in a 5-4 loss to the
Florida Panthers.

-- Joel Ward had his second two-goal game of the season, the
first one coming on October 25th against Calgary. Both of his two-goal games have come on the
road. Ward has five multi-goal games
with the Caps, four of them coming on the road.

-- Braden Holtby’s assist on Ovechkin’s first goal was his
second assist of the season. No, it’s
not a record. Olaf Kolzig had three
assists in consecutive seasons (2005-2006 and 2006-2007); Jose Theodore had
three assists in 2008-2009.

-- Each team had more faceoffs than shot attempts. While
sharing a total of 75 draws, the Caps had only 49 shot attempts, while the
Canadiens had 65 shot attempts. The Caps
blocked 30 shots, 23 of them by the defense, led by Matt Niskanen with six.

-- OK, another Ovechkin fact…he now has 35 goals in 41 games
in the 2015 portion of the season. For
the mathematically challenged, that is a 70-goal pace over half a season.

-- Michael Latta played only one shift after the 10:42 mark
of the second period. Ditto, Tom Wilson

-- Carlson’s 26:48 in ice time was a season high for him,
eclipsing the 26”16 he skated in a 4-3 Gimmick win over Buffalo on March 16th.

-- Barry Trotz became the 13th coach in NHL history to win
600 regular season games in his coaching career. Among active coaches, only Joel Quenneville
(753), Ken Hitchcock (704), and Lindy Ruff (648) have more.

In the end…

The goals from Ovechkin are nice, but a 7-2-0 record in the Caps’
last nine games is better. Better still
is jumping into second place in the Metropolitan Division (they hold a
tie-breaker over the Islanders, more points won in head-to-head games). The win in Montreal sets up Saturday’s game against
Ottawa as a potential playoff-clinching game for the Caps, and in so doing
could all but dash the dimming hopes of the Senators for a playoff spot. Now THAT’S must-see TV.

WE INTERRUPT OUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED PROGRAMMING

The Washington Capitals ended the 2016-2017 as one of 12 franchises in the NHL never to win a Stanley Cup. Of that group, only the St. Louis Blues (48 seasons), Buffalo Sabres (45 seasons), and Vancouver Canucks (45 seasons) have gone longer never having won a Cup than the Capitals (41 seasons). Six teams came into the league after the Capitals entered the league in 1974-1975 and have won Stanley Cups: Colorado Rockies/New Jersey Devils (1976-1977), Edmonton Oilers (1979-1980), Quebec Nordiques/Colorado Avalanche (1979-1980), Hartford Whalers/Carolina Hurricanes (1979-1980), Tampa Bay Lightning (1992-1993), and the Anaheim Ducks (1993-1994).

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